(Photo: Mikako Koyama)

The Best Bet
Why? Because Jean Michel Cazabat took an ordinary if trendy shoe form, the open-toed pump, and gave it a much-needed shot of color. The peekaboo style is a natural accompaniment to this fall’s thirties- and forties-style fashions, but most renditions feature solid colors and plain leathers. Cazabat has pumped up his pump with what he calls “party energy.” His Clara shoe has a multicolored crisscross grid pattern made of soft Venetian velvet that’s festive-looking and much friendlier to the toes than leather, no matter how soft. It’s handmade in a small town outside Venice, and named for Clara Bow, the twenties silent-film actress sometimes known as the “Brooklyn Bonfire”—not a bad epithet for anyone who dons the Clara in 2004, either. ($395 at Barneys New York; 212-826-8900).